The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-04-29

tldl Tor CLERKS IL bu0 iucOuntu0JuUUu OF GU
toners. There ara people who are entircl,
, polite everywhere else, but gruR and dlcta
torial and contemplate when they como int
! store TO buy anything There arc thousand
J OF mon and women who 60 from store Il
store TO price things, without any idea o.
; purchase. They arc not satisfied until every
roll OF goods IL brought down and they hav'
! pointed out all tho roal or imaginary defects
} They try on all kinds Of kid gloves, anf
stretch them out OF shape, and they put on al
styles Of cloals and walk to the mirror to SCI
how it would look, and then they sail out oil
the store, saying: VI will not take 1t today
which means: ~ don't want 1t at all" leav,
ing the clerk, amid wreck OF ribbons and
laces and cloths to smooth out $500 worth OF
goods-not one cent Of which did that man
or woman buy or expect to buy. Now,
call that dishonesty ON the part Of the
customer. II boy runs into a store
counter and sneaks out into the street, You
all join in the cry, pell NELL: "Stop thiefl'
When SEQ you go into q store, not expect
ing to buy anything but to price things,
stealing the time Of the clerk and stealing the
time of his employer, ] say, too: "Stop thicf''
II were asked which class of persons most
| ihSSu Cuo SiaCo VI oOO uu1lu UuclI uDIlOy-
ancos would say: "Dry goods clerks" All
the indignation Of customers about the high
prices comes on the clerk For instance:
A great war comes The manufactures are
closed. The people go OFF to battle. The
price Of goods runs up. A customer comes
into store. Goods have gone up "How
much is that WORTH" "A dollar" "A dol
lar! Outrageous. A dollarl" Why, who is
| A<~1 ~y~,,, AL~k l.
dollara Does the indignation go out to the
manufacturers on the banks Of the Merrimac
because they have closed upl No. Does the
indignation 60 out toward the employer, who
is out at his country seatl No. 1t comes on
the clerk. He got up the war! He levied
the taxes He puts up the rents! OF course
the clerk!
Then great trial comes to clerks in the
fact that they see tho parsimonious side of
human nature. You talk about lies behind
the counter-thero are just as many lies be-
fore the counter Augustine speaks of man
who advertised that he would, on a certain
occasion, tell the people what was in their
hearts A great crowd assembled and he
stepped to the front and said: ~ will tell you
what is in your hearts: To buy cheap and sell
dear!" Oh, people of Brooklyn! lay not aside
your urbanity when you come into a store.
Treat the clerks like gentlemen and ladies'
proving yourself to be q gentleman or O
lady. Remember that if the prices are high
and your purse is lean, that is no fault of tho
clerks. And if you have son or a daughter
amid those perplexities Of commercial life
and such one comes home oil worn out, be
lenient and know that the martyr at the stake
no more certainly needs the grace of God
than our young people amid the seven
times heated exasperations Of a clerks life.
Then there are all the trials which come to
clerks from the treatment of inconsiderate
employers There are protested Christian
men in this city who have no more regard for
their clerks than they have for the scales on
which the sugars are weighed. A clerk is no
more than so much store furniture. No con-
sideration for their rights or their interests.
Not one word Of encouragement from sunrise
to sunset, nor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a streak of
dust on the counter or a box with the cover
of-thunder showers Of scolding. Men i'm
perious, capricious, cranky toward their
clerks-their whole manner as much as to
say: "All the interest have in You is to zee
what l can get out of you"
Then there are all the trials of incompetent
war broke out and all merchandise went up,
and merchants were made millionaires in SIX
mouths by the simple rise in the value Of
goods. Did the clerk get the advantage of
that rise? Sometimes, not always. saw
estates gathered in those times over which the
curse of God has hung ever since. The cry
of undergrad men and women in those stores
reached the Lord OF Sabaoth, and the illdig-
nation Of God has been around those estab-
ishments ever since; rumbling in the car
riage wheels, flashing in the chandeliers,
glowing from the crimson upholstery thun-
dering in the long roll of the ten pin alley
Such men build up palaces of merchandise
heaven high, but after a while u disaster will
come along and will put one hand on this pill
lar, and another hand on that pillar, and throw
itself forward until down will come the
whole structure, crushing the worshirsrs as
grapes are mashed in a wine press.
Then there are boys in establishments who
are ruined-in prosperous establishments
ruined by their lack Of compensation. In
how many prosperous stores it has been for
the last twenty years that boys were given
just enough money to learn them how to
steal Some were seized upon by the police.
The vast majority Of instances were not
known. The head of the firm asked: "Where |
is George MOVE" "Oh, be isn't here any
more" ....- ....
A lad might better starve to death ON a
blasted heath than take one cent from his en-
ployer. Woe be to that employer who I'M
puts temptation in boys way.
There have been great establishments in these
cities, building marble palaces, their owners
dying worth millions and millions and mil
lions, who made a vast amount of their estate
out of the blood and muscle and nerve of
half paid clerks. Such men as-well, will
not mention any name. But / mean men
who have gathered up vast estates at the ex-
pense of the people who were ground under
their heel. ''Oh," say such merchants, ''if
you don't like it here, then go and get bet
ter place" AS much as to say: 'Ive got |
you in my grip, and mean to hold you; you
can't get any other place" Oh, what con-
trast we see between such men and those
Christian merchants Of Brooklyn and New
York who to-day are sympathetic with their
they pay the salary, acting in
this way: ''rhis salary that give you is
not all my interest in you. You are an i'm
mortal man; you are an immortal woman;
am interested in your present and your
everlasting welfare; I want you to under
fond that If am N little higher nm in this |